Racial Quotas

FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT RACIAL QUOTAS - PAGE 5

By Excerpted from an editorial in The Bulletin, Bend, Ore | July 18, 1989

Some minorities, especially Asian-Americans, are discovering that ethnic and racial quotas can cut both ways-and that neither way is very good for American society. The latest quota controversy stems from reports that many of the nation's finest colleges and universities are explicitly limiting admissions of Asian- Americans. At the University of California at Berkeley, for example, officials admitted that their policies in effect imposed a quota on the number of Asian-Americans accepted to their school.

Self-appointed spokesmen for various minority communities complain oft and loud about how minority workers are underpaid. Turning this around, it is apparent that minority workers work for low pay. That being the case, it would seem to me that minority contractors, using minority labor, could be the lowest bidders on virtually any municipal contract they want. If they are not getting their fair share of the business, discrimination is not the issue. Sad to say, it must be politics or management skills that prevent their getting contracts.

Two lawmakers ended a 24-hour sit-in at the Florida lieutenant governor's office Wednesday after Gov. Jeb Bush agreed to postpone plans to end traditional affirmative action programs until public hearings are held. Rep. Tony Hill and Sen. Kendrick Meek, both of whom are black Democrats, spent the night in the lieutenant governor's office to protest Bush's proposed changes to the state policies. The sit-in, characterized by the Republican governor Tuesday as "sophomoric," prompted state civil rights leaders to converge on the capital and lend their support to the protest Wednesday.

Mayor Harold Washington has an unusual ally in the ward remap fight that could tip the city council balance of power in his favor: President Ronald Reagan's Justice Department. An official ruling signed by William Bradford Reynolds, the President's civil rights chief and perennial target of the mayor and other black leaders, calls for the city council and the Board of Election Commissioners to hold prompt special elections in the 15th, 18th, 22d, 25th, 26th, 31st and 37th Wards, all of which are being redrawn to give better representation to blacks and Hispanics.

Since I am not a liberal by any current definition, I cannot say whether Geoffrey Stone's definition of liberal in his recent Commentary piece is correct. I can say without question that some of Stone's definitions have nothing to do with the left in the United States today. The left does not tolerate any dissent whatsoever. One who dares to disagree with the left's agenda is shouted down and reviled. Witness the speech codes on most college campuses. Anyone who dares to describe affirmative action for what it is--thinly disguised racial quotas--is immediately denounced as a racist.

Chicago Public Schools officials are set to release new guidelines for integrating the city's coveted magnet and selective schools using socioeconomic factors, a decision prompted by a federal ruling lifting a racial integration order in late September. The decision to end the so-called desegregation consent decree means the use of racial quotas for admissions to the city's roughly 75 magnet and selective schools will now give way to factors like income, native language spoken at home and both educational and marital status of parents, sources said.

Chicago Public Schools officials are set to release new guidelines for integrating the city's coveted magnet and selective schools using socioeconomic factors, a decision prompted by a federal ruling lifting a racial integration order in late September. The decision to end the so-called desegregation consent decree means that the use of racial quotas for admissions to the city's roughly 75 magnet and selective schools will give way to such factors as income, native language spoken at home and the educational and marital status of parents, sources said.

Aug 21 (Reuters) - Aug. 28 marks the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. The address was a key event in the struggle of black Americans for racial equality. The following are major dates in the modern U.S. civil rights movement: 1948 - President Harry Truman desegregates the armed forces. 1954 - Supreme Court outlaws segregation in public schools in Brown v. Board of Education. 1955-57 - Bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, sparked by seamstress Rosa Parks and organized by King.

"You have lived the American dream!" exclaimed Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). "You are what it's all about. You are handsome. You are young." "I'm ready to jump for joy for your nomination," gushed Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun (D-Ill.). Even Republican senators sounded enthusiastic. "You're an impressive man," said the often testy Alan Simpson of Wyoming. "An excellent choice," intoned conservative watchdog Orrin Hatch of Utah, who predicted, "I will enjoy working with you."